Strengthening regional meteorological institutions a priority

THE Caribbean Meteor-ological Organisation (CMO) is seeking to strengthen regional institutions involved in climate services, so that these institutions can improve their scientific and technical capabilities to better predict variations and possible changes in the climate that may have an impact on regional countries.

Tyrone Sutherland, Co-ordinating Director of the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation (CMO), noted the above as he delivered remarks at the opening of the 53rd Meeting of the Caribbean Meteorological Council, held at the Radisson Aquatica Resort on Monday.

Regional delegates gathered at the Radisson Aquatica for the
53rd Meeting of the Caribbean Meteorological Council in Barbados.

“There are ample statistics from the World Bank and other such institutions to show that over a long period, the greatest damages, economic losses and the loss of lives worldwide are attributable to hydro-meteorological hazards such as hurricanes, storm surges, flooding, extreme temperatures and drought,” Sutherland pointed out.

“However, as we make strides towards higher levels of prosperity, we must remain cognisant of the fact that everything we work so hard to achieve is also challenged by our natural environment, which can worsen as we face an increasingly varying and even a changing climate, both of which have come to the forefront around the world, over the last two decades in particular,” he further remarked.


“Therefore, variations in climate and climate-change issues are now also likely to become ‘bread and butter’ issues for our meteorological community,” the CMO co-ordinating director stressed.

Acknowledging that the Caribbean Meteorological Council, which serves as the governing body of the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation, has guided and shaped the development of meteorological services in the English-speaking Caribbean since its inception back in 1962, Sutherland revealed that the Council has been working towards ensuring that its organs, the CMO Headquarters in Port-of-Spain and the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) in Barbados, are well placed to assist its member states improve their scientific and technical capabilities to predict variations and possible changes in the climate.

“This is very important because we already see that while the public focuses on the better known natural hazards caused by hurricanes and floods, there is still some confusion in the minds of the public and sometimes governments, over the possible impact of climate change,” Sutherland stated, while suggesting that there are governments that deliberately fuel the cause of the climate-change sceptics, to justify not having to spend resources to combat climate change.

To this end, Sutherland noted that he must congratulate the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and partner organisations around the world for the establishment of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), which will ensure that small, vulnerable states such as ours in the Caribbean, can benefit tremendously from good climate forecasts, while providing governments and policy makers with this proper and more easily understood climate information. (RSM)